Sir Philip Craven

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 14 December 2016

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sir Philip Craven is the President of the International Paralympic Committee and a former wheelchair basketball athlete. Craven represented Great Britain in wheelchair basketball at five editions of the Paralympic Games, from 1972 to 1988. He also competed in track and field athletics and swimming at the 1972 Games. He won gold at the wheelchair basketball World Championships in 1973, and bronze in 1975, as well as two gold medals (1971, 1974) and a silver (1993) at the European Championships. He also won gold at the European Champions Cup in 1994, and gold at the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in 1970. Sir Philip Craven has been passionate about sport all his life. He was born in Bolton and educated at the University of Manchester, where he graduated with a geography degree in 1972. He grew up the younger of two boys to parents Herbert and Hilda who ran a floristry shop. He spent his childhood playing lots of cricket, climbing trees and trainspotting. Then when he was sixteen, he fell whilst rock climbing and broke his back. He was paralysed from the chest down and lost the use of his legs. He became a wheelchair user, went on to university and became a wheelchair basketball player. He met his French wife, Joscelyne when he was working as a sports trainer in Brittany. They have been married for 42 years and have two children and three grandsons. Producer: Sarah Taylor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the BBC.
0:04.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young.
0:06.0	Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.0	For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the Radio broadcast.
0:14.0	For more information about the program, please visit bbc.co.uk-radio4.
0:30.0	Music
0:40.0	My castaway this week is the president of the International Paralympic Committee Sir Philip Craven.
0:46.0	He is uniquely qualified for the role, having actually been there seen it done it, got the medals.
0:52.0	A world champion wheelchair basketball player in his day, he seems to have applied that same relentless,
0:58.0	and take a dogged determination to running the Paralympics.
1:02.0	Loaded for transforming the movement from a disability sports organisation into a sports organisation.
1:08.0	His Lancashire childhood of playing cricket and climbing trees changed when aged just 16.
1:14.0	He broke his back in a rock climbing accident.
1:16.0	He used sport as his rehab, but firmly believes that Paralympics sport can transform not just individuals, but society.
1:24.0	He says, I never felt I was rebuilding my life, I always felt I was continuing my life.
1:30.0	It was sport that did it, provided that bridge, that vehicle, where I could get good at something.
1:36.0	That's so important with everybody, whether you have an impairment or you don't.
1:40.0	So Sir Philip, welcome.
1:42.0	Not rebuilding, but continuing your life then.
1:46.0	You've used a wheelchair for 50 years now, I think.
1:48.0	How have you seen people's attitude to you as a wheelchair user change in that half century?
1:56.0	Maybe I've had to get in the last 10, 15 years, a little bit less angry with people.
	...

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